Everything is on the table now. Not that we needed last night’s 11-3 shellacking at the hands of the Orioles at Camden Yards to comprehend that. But there’s something to be said for opening eyes with a flourish like this, for both the smoke and the mirrors malfunctioning at the same time.

“We’ve just got to keep fighting, and hopefully sooner than later, we can start winning games so we can get closer,” Robinson Cano said in a quiet Yankees clubhouse.

The key word there being, for the Yankees, “hopefully.” This is a mediocre baseball team, now having lost four straight games and 20 of 32, that has overachieved thanks to a strong bullpen and good luck and is not well positioned to accomplish much of impact in the trade market.

The Yankees are counting on the return of many injured players, none of whom has a firm timeline, two of whom are hindered by age and two of whom are being pursued by Major League Baseball investigators.

It’s a shaky plan designed to rescue a shaky operation.

Though David Phelps took a beating last night, giving up nine runs and nine hits in just 2 1/3 innings — including the first of Chris Davis’ two homers on the night, giving the Orioles first baseman a major-league-leading 30 — the Yankees’ woeful lineup put up an acceptable 11 hits and three walks, only to strand 10 men on base. The Yankees (42-38) have scored 308 runs (12th in the American League) and allowed 322, which puts them on a mathematical track to finish 77-85.

To their credit, the Yankees have outperformed their run differential, which has allowed them to retain their relevance. They trail the AL East-leading Red Sox (49-34) by 5 1/2 games and the Orioles (46-36) by three games for the final playoff spot; they lead the last-place Blue Jays (40-40) by two games. They of course shouldn’t surrender the season. Not yet, anyway.

The problem, however, lies in the worst-case scenario. As much as Yankees fans fretted over every slump of the prior 18 years, the roster’s talent level and track record indicated the team would find a path to the playoffs; only in 2008 did they fall short. This team pales in comparison. You’re simply not going to win many games with a lineup featuring Jayson Nix hitting second, David Adams seventh, a platoon-disadvantaged Lyle Overbay eighth and Austin Romine ninth.

“I still think these guys can get it done,” Joe Girardi said. “I know we have some young guys that are playing out there, and we’ve got some guys that have struggled the last couple of years that are playing out there, but I still think they can get it done.”

Pressed on such lollipops-and-clouds thinking, he said, “I thought we had good at-bats tonight. I thought we swung the bats as good tonight as we have in a while. And maybe that’s the start of something.”

Maybe Ivan Nova, who saved the bullpen with 5 2/3 strong innings in relief of Phelps, and the rehabilitating Michael Pineda can provide some reinforcements to the rotation. Maybe Francisco Cervelli, Curtis Granderson, 39-year-old Derek Jeter and 37-year-old Alex Rodriguez all can get healthy, return, avoid the wrath of MLB (in the case of Cervelli and A-Rod) and provide the lineup with the lift it desperately needs. Maybe Michael Young comes over from Philadelphia to be the right-handed half of a first-base platoon with Overbay, and maybe Mariano Rivera pitches brilliantly all the way through his retirement tour. It still wouldn’t be shocking if the Yankees figure out a way back into the postseason.

Then again, maybe the Yankees’ starters outside of Hiroki Kuroda won’t find a rhythm, the injured guys won’t be the same and MLB actually prevails in some of these performance-enhancing drug pursuits. It wouldn’t be shocking either if the Yankees put up their first losing campaign since 1992, when they went 76-86 as rookie manager Buck Showalter learned the ropes and taught them to his players, too. They even could be sellers at the trade deadline, though that remains a long shot.

How low can they go? If the Yankees keep trending downward, that question might be the most interesting one concerning their 2013.